(CNN) -- A judge will bring at least 41 guards to trial following a mass jailbreak from a prison in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico's Attorney General's office posted on its website Tuesday.

The men and women will face charges for their alleged role in the escape of 153 inmates from the Executions of Sanctions Center on December 17.

The inmates, apparently in collusion with prison workers, escaped through a service entrance for staff vehicles, according to information from a preliminary state investigation.

The prison director also "disappeared," said Antonio Garza Garcia, public safety secretary for Tamaulipas state at the time. The director is not among those charged at this time.

Earlier this year, there were at least two other high-profile prison escapes in Tamaulipas, which borders Texas.

In September, 85 inmates used a ladder to clear a wall and escape from a prison in the border city of Reynosa, state media reported. In March, 40 inmates escaped from another prison in the border city of Matamoros.

Tamaulipas has been a battleground in a bloody turf war between the Zetas gang and the Gulf cartel, but authorities did not indicate Friday whether drug gangs were involved in the escape.